<p>“Sorry but the whole let’s lower the drinking age to make the problem go away argument is hogwash to me.”</p>
<p>I was leaning in that direction, until I talked about it with my husband. He pointed out that unless the kids have a huge leap in growth in judgment between the ages of 17 and 18 (doubtful) there could be huge cost in human lives, since the drunk driving statistics of teenagers is so abysmal. They are simply not able to calculate risk at that age. So any experiment to find out if kids drinking at 18 would be more “civilized” than they are now could have terrible consequences.</p>
<p>In addition, I believe that several European countries with lower drinking ages than ours have even higher rates of alcoholism. What is the age in Britain? I have been reading that several cities there have been having tragic problems with out of control drinking, of the sort we are seeing on campuses today.</p>
<p>I do find it amusing when kids who have been drinking since high school, with or without parental approval, so much more vastly sophisticated than their greenhorn non-drinking peers, feel qualified to give advice to them as to how to fit into college life today. Let’s just hope they invited some of these poor social misfits to chauffeur them to and from the parties where they built up this admirable resume.:)</p>